Reporter Chen Yong reports At 2:15 a.m. Beijing time on the 21st, the national football team will challenge Saudi Arabia, the opponent of the round of 18 in Riyadh, which is the last game of the 7th round of Group C.

In Group C, which is a mess, the results of these three games are very important, and for the top four in the target group and even the national football team that dreams of qualifying directly, the goal of this game is to get points.

It is worth noting that Ivan's debut in charge of the national football team was on March 21 a year ago, and a year later, the outside world expects to see a better national football team.

The pre-match press conference of the national football team started at 12:30 a.m. Beijing time on the 20th, with Ivan and Wang Dalei participating.

Ivan introduced the preparation situation, he believes that the battle between China and Saudi Arabia is very important, and the result will determine the situation of qualifying from the group to a certain extent, "We know the Saudi team very well, and we have made full preparations, and we hope to achieve good results." He said that Saudi Arabia has always been a strong team in Asia, having reached the main draw of the World Cup for two consecutive years, and won the championship Argentina last time, "but we have made sufficient preparations through the training camp in Dubai, and I believe in my players." Wang Dalei also said that he had done a good job in preparing for the game in Dubai and hoped to have a good result.

Saudi Arabia changed coaches after the fourth round of the round of 18, Mancini was sacked and Hainach returned, and he led the team to play two round of 18 matches, 0-0 away to Australia and 0-2 away to Indonesia. At the moment, the Saudi team has changed a lot of personnel.

"We are aware of the changes in the Saudi team, they have young players and experienced veterans, and that's the same as us, we have 15 new players. Ivan said that he would not underestimate his opponent because he was younger, and would pay more attention to it, and of course, the game would be dominated by me. 'We won't forget the goal we conceded at home against them from two set-pieces, we practiced during the training camp and we also did set-piece training today when we got used to the pitch.

Talking about the difference between Mancini and Heinach, Ivan said: "Mancini is a famous coach, I am not convenient to comment too much; Hainach has coached the Saudi team and knows more about Saudi football, I played against him a lot when I was in Oman, I am familiar with his technical and tactical style of play, he is a great coach. Ivan believes that Heinach will not easily change his coaching philosophy, and the personnel changes are precisely to match his skills and tactics.

A year ago, on March 21, Ivan ushered in his first game in charge of the national football team, so how has the national football team changed in the past year? At the press conference, the national football coach reviewed the changes in the past year.

Ivan said that when he first arrived, he was similar to Mancini's "encounter", and did not understand the current situation and specific situation of Chinese football, and took some detours in the early stage of staffing and tactical arrangements. "But over the past year, through so many official games, the team's technical and tactical play and personnel have changed, and there are many newcomers to the team, including two 18-year-old players (Wang Yudong and Liu Chengyu)."

Wang Dalei said: "In the past year, I interviewed every player, and they all said that this is the most united Chinese team, which is not told by others, but the real experience in my heart, which shows that the coach has brought more vitality, trust and help to this team, and the head coach has changed a lot, and it has also brought changes to Chinese football." ”

In the past year, the national football team has experienced a lot of ups and downs, such as a 2-2 draw away to Singapore and a difficult situation, such as a thrilling round of 18, such as three consecutive defeats in the opening round of 18, such as consecutive victories over Indonesia and Bahrain, and the performance of China and Japan in the second leg has been recognized by the outside world - over the past year, the emotions of Chinese fans have also been like a roller coaster: disappointment, worry, pain, surprise, and now, expectation.

Although the Saudi Arabian team has been in poor condition recently and has injuries, it is necessary to realize that this game is still very difficult for the national football team, and if you want to score points, you can only work selflessly. As for the lineup, it is relatively simple, the current starters of the national football team tend to be stable, which is nothing more than small changes in the fullbacks and attacking ends, such as whether Hu Hetao and Zhang Yuning will start, at present, whether Serginho and Wang Yudong can bring surprises is what fans are most looking forward to.